KE

KALAhea

The

herald

Monday, FEBRUARY 27, 2012issue 3The student run & student written publication of the university of hawai'i, hilo and hawai'i community college

Lea Black

KE kalaheacampus center room 215

200 w.kawili st. hilo, hi 96720(808) 974 - 7504

fax: (808) 974 - 7782

Editor in ChiefSports Editor | Sports Writer Anthony Holzman-EscarenoBusiness ManagerKaryle SaikiNews Editor | WriterMichael PankowskiArts & Community Editor | WriterLe’a GleasonLayout Editor | DesignVeronica HillStaff Writers

Chelsea AlwardBren Chance Noelani WatersDorothy FukushimaComptonStaff Photographers

Bryan PattersonLea BlackHi’inae MillerGraphic DesignAssi BroanCopy ChiefNick Conway Circulation ManagerLaura BronsonWebmasterAlya Amirah Binti AzmanStaff Advisor Tiffany Edwards Hunt

Hilo's Shark's coffee &

Chocolatepages 14 & 17

Cats on campuspages 13 & 17

Rants & Ravespages 18 & 19

Ke Kalahea is the student newspaper for the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo and Hawai‘i Community College. We express the voice of the student body using our rights to the freedom of speech and press.

The mission of Ke Kalahea is to provide coverage of news and events affecting the university and our com-munity. We offer a forum for communication and the exchange of ideas and provide educational training and experience for students in all areas of the newspaper’s operation. Ke Kalahea operates a fiscally responsible

organization, which ensures our ability to serve the university well. Through Ke Kalahea’s publication, we encourage students to take advantage of academic and personal oppor-

tunities—ones that will deepen their knowledge, enhance their experiences and broaden their perspectives.

Mission Statement

180 clubpage 7

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

coverChinese new year

Festivalpage 12

Hcc Mural project

page 4

Sodexopage 5

Valenscience daypage 6

All born into poverty, we grew up in the same rags/It ain’t never bother me, it made me who I am/ I would never change, naw, I would never switch up/ So, when I’m knocked down, only option, “get up”/ going to the top but I ain’t go’ leave y’all/ coming to the top with me then we go’ feed us all/ every time we went hungry, every time our stomach’s fought us/ we go’ get this money and buy everything they never bought us/ ain’t f**kin’ easter bunnies, ain’t no damn santa clauses/ we all love the W’s cause we’ve seen so many losses/ lookin for the badge of honor, we already f**kin’ got em/ cuz you ain’t lived life ‘til u seen the f**kin’ bottom/ People bitch about the struggle, that’s old news/ little children learn to hustle though they ain’t suppose to/ we grew up in stone, but we go’ see the gold too/ I been spitting hot enough to heaten up the cold food/ FOOD STAMPS, EBT dreamin’/ I ain’t gonna stop until they see me leanin’/ in that f**kin 300, I’m a call it Healin’/ I’ma have to say that I just gat a feelin’ (that)/ we go’ go and reach stars, big chips, big homes, and big cars/ ain’t nobody stoppin’ us, we grew up on welfare/ we go reach the top without ‘em, fingaz up from who’s there/ I’m still a food stamp baby, a ninth grade drop out/ Who’s that crazy to think I’d hop out/ down in the abyss, justice is a felony/ nothing but a hooligan do you remember telling me?/ Went from sprinting from the cops to walkin’ into law school/ Graduated robberies, it’ll be the bar soon/ For all those f**kin hard times that I had to starve through/ Now I’m on the top causing ruckus ‘til the stars move/ Out into the streets yeah...can’t come up with rent/ Now I’m headed for a flight to the one percent/ Greener pastures right here yeah, I’ma hop the fence/ Getting private dollars all up on my common sense/ Baby I can see the globe, how I made it here/ I aint never had a home, now I’m taking stairs/ Homey I’m a pirate, always be a tyrant/ I don’t wanna see the stars, lemme see the diamonds/ Show ‘em what a heist is, higher than your highness/ Big Black 300, call it Leonitis / Go to visit santa claus, though he ain’t never come through/ buddies with the sun after mingling with Sun Tzu/ Let’s go live the life, we always used to day dream/ Food Stamps to EBT, we all was on the same thing/ midnight store runs, I was on the same train/ all my homeys ridin’ with me, homey this a gang bang/ Yeah I’m on those straight A’s, but I be on the same sh*t/ same dudes that done hung before, same dudes I be hangin’ wit/ FTS that’s to the death, I be on that do or die/ I be on that paper chase, but I won’t leave my goons behind/ It’s all about the many and it really equals one dream/ Paper be the culprit if it ever makes me come clean/ See I ain’t never had no one, Mama knows so/ They wonder why I’m crazy cuz Mama’s loco/ I walk around campus with my hat real low/ And I know they can’t stand it, so my pants to the flo’/ Got my Nike’s lookin’ clean, edge up lookin’ smooth/ The struggle in the eyes, n you can see it in the tattoos/ I could love college, I could love it everyday/ But I’m all about my dollars, that’s the only way I stay/ All my homeys doing dirt, man they say that I done change/ But I’m still doing dirt, I just picked another game/ Had dreams of living large, but those dreams just equal trouble/ And I’ve seen enough of trouble, lived enough of struggle/ Seen my life break up, now I’m picking up the puzzle/ Still, all about my paper, I’m just switching up the hustle/ Ever since I went to college man I really ain’t the same/ You would think I was from Oakland, all about the A’s/ Robberies and brains to the books and the brains/ They offered me a change now I’m hooked to the brains/ Cause Robert Frost told me take the road not taken/ Many more to come I’ll lay the road with pavement/ All those who patient baby you could make it too/ F**k all those who hating homey all it take is YOU/ All it take heart, mind, and soul/ We reachin’ for the bronze because we’re blind to gold/ Goin’ for the fast cash, never gets the last laugh/ Why my ass in class? Cause I just want to laugh back

Anthony “Trumps”Holzman-Escareno E.I.C.

Professor Profiles

CurtisPage 8 -9

LuangphinithPag e 10 -11

Hawaiianlegacypage 15 - 16

International news briefpage 3

3

Fire burns hole in University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa’s pocketFinancial records and procurement office destroyed

On Feb. 12, 2012, the Honolulu Fire Department received a phone call about a fire on the Mānoa campus of the University of Hawai‘i. According to Dan Nakaso’s article in the Star Advertiser, the phone call came in at 8:03 a.m. The responding fire crew brought the flames that had briefly consumed the fiscal management and procurement office under control by 8:21 a.m.

In a statement to the media, Honolulu Fire Capt. Robert Main said “it just erupted into flames” at around 10 a.m. “Once it got into the roof structure, we had problems getting into the roof area and opening it up.” Apparently, the fire had burnt a hole through the roof, and the rush of oxygen was sufficient to re-kindle the flames within the 2,500 square foot portable office space.

In a statement to the media on Feb. 12, University of Hawai‘i spokesperson Gregg Takayama said that aside from the 40 or so employees who lost their of-fice space, the extent of the loss was not immediately discernible. “Some of the records are backed-up on an off campus site, but most are not,” Takayama said. “For now it’s a bit too early to say what the immediate impact is.”

Takayama said the office handled documents and financial records for all of the 60,000 students and 7,000 to 8,000 faculty and staff who comprise the entire University of Hawai‘i system population across all of its campuses. This included “payroll records, procurement records, accounts payable, student loan information for the entire UH system,” according to Takayama.

By Monday, Feb. 13, 2012, the University of Hawai‘i website included up-dates under its emergency news link. Details regarding the extent of damage to financial documents and activities were released in an attempt to clarify how University of Hawai‘i students and faculty/staff members might be affected by the blaze.

The update stated that payroll and student loan processing would continue uninterrupted because the data was stored electronically offsite. Certain student loan historical documentation was unaccounted for as of Monday, but the web update assured readers that payments, collections and other student loan transac-tions would continue as usual.

“Other paper functions such as pre-audit processing of documents including

internal travel reimbursements, vendor payments, etc., were carried out in this building,” the statement pointed out. It said this documentation is retrievable, but recreating it is going to take an undetermined amount of time.

By Thursday, Feb. 16, the impact was being felt at UH Hilo. A fiscal train-ing for the business managers and treasurers of chartered student organizations included a list of processed financial requests per organization that would be delayed.

The University of Hawai‘i emergency news updates for Feb. 16 cited Ho-nolulu Fire Department officials as believing the fire to have been started by overheated electrical wiring in the portable building walls.

Even though the inconveniences caused by the fire have already been felt throughout the University of Hawai‘i system, the tone set by its emergency news website put everything into humanitarian perspective. “We are extremely grate-ful it occurred at a time when no employees were at work and no personal safety was jeopardized. Buildings and materials can always be replaced.”

With damages estimated at $600,000, the University of Hawai‘i has yet to establish what economic impact the damages will have on a system budget that is already being strained by heavy cutbacks.

Michael Pankowski | News Editor

In International News

Tibetan protests heat up Bren ChanceStaff Writer

Twenty two Tibetans have set themselves on fire since March 2011 in protest against Chinese occupation of their country.

A teenage nun was the most recent self-immo-lator. She set herself ablaze while calling out slo-gans of protest against the Chinese government. Her act appeared to be in response to the Chinese leader of the Tibet Autonomous Region stepping up the level of aggression against the Tibetan people.

An unidentified person went up against an in-creased military presence on Feb. 8 by setting her or his person on fire. Witnesses in the area report-ed a large number of military vehicles as well as communist soldiers patrolling the streets. The pa-trols were allegedly armed with a variety of clubs, batons and other blunt and spiked instruments.

In a statement to the press, Free Tibet Direc-tor Stephanie Brigden called for international aid to rid Tibet of Chinese communist rule. She said, “These latest self-immolations confirm that what we are currently witnessing in Tibet is a sustained

and profound rejection of the Chinese occupation. We can only expect that such acts of protest will continue for as long as world leaders turn a blind eye to the desperate situation in Tibet.”

The current wave of protests has escalated in

scale and extremity over the past eight months. In June 2011, 26 Tibetans took part in five separate protests. During the protests, slogans called for the return to Tibet of the Dalai Lama and freedom from Chinese rule for Tibet. Protestors were re-ported to have suffered beatings and detention by Chinese authorities.

For the past eight months, over 100 Tibetan truck drivers in Central and Eastern Tibet have protested the lack of work due to Chinese busi-nesses and government hiring only Chinese driv-ers.

Tibet’s leader-in-exile, the spiritual figure known as the Dalai Lama, has been both the spiri-tual and political leader since 1950. Tibet had no official political figurehead until the Chinese in-vasion in 1949 forced the people to elect a repre-sentative. A brutal response to an anti-occupation protest forced the Dalai Lama to flee to India in 1959. The Tibetan people continue to meet violent resistance to their requests for control of their own lands and for the return of their leader.

A Tibetan Buddhist monk in-exile is detained by Indian po-lice officers during a protest outside The Chinese Embassy in New Delhi.

SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP/Getty Images

Firefighters had the blaze under control within 20 minutes of receiving a phone call about the fire. Photos: http://www.hawaii.edu/news/2012/02/16/officials-tour-uh-fire-site/

Around 40 employees have been dislocated by the total loss of the fiscal management and procure-ment office.

Damages have been estimated at $600,000.

Financial documenta-

tion lost to the Feb. 12 fire

is retriev-able, but it’s

going to take some time,

according to a University of

Hawai‘i press release.

4

Hawai‘i Community College Mural Project underway

Dorothy Fukushima | Staff Writer

Art is the stuff of inspiration - that which calls to the spirit and in-spires. As we struggle to attain our academic goals there are

students and faculty working to bring some beauty into our lives. Students at Hawai‘i Community College are working on painting a Hawaiian themed mural that “appreciates na-tive species, pays homage to the island, honors kupuna and by showing the beauty of the na-tive environment encourages conservation.” It can be found on Building 382, the cafeteria. The project is currently headed by Hawai‘i Community College art instructor Tobias Brill.

The project was set into motion by Mu-riel Hughes, a Digital Media Arts specialist at Hawai‘i Community College who retired while awaiting grant approval. The funds for the mural project were granted by the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry this past summer. The budget allotted was $2000.

The project had a slow start during the fall 2011 semester, with Brill struggling to get stu-dent participation and filling out paperwork for final approval for the site. The original mural site was slated for Building 387, but due to the restrictions of the natural foliage, the cafeteria was selected.

Hawai‘i Community College administra-tion, including the head of the Culinary Arts Department, Allan Okuda, has been support-ive in this endeavor. Approval for the cafeteria as the mural site was given January 2012. The project has been given one year for comple-tion, but Brill is optimistic about finishing it by the end of this semester.

As per the grant proposal, the objective of the mural is to “honor the knowledge and con-servation practices of our kupuna to preserve native species.” Native species are the focal point of the mural concept design created by Hawai‘i Community College Art major, Bevin Kilfoyle.

Kilfoyle, a student of Brill, was contacted by her instructor to draw a prototype for the mural. In keeping with the theme of the mural, Kilfoyle was conscientious in her artwork and strove to be respectful of the native species she drew. In her words, “I wanted to depict Puna and highlight some of the beauty of the Big Island.”

Another artist working on the mural, Hawai‘i Community College freshman Bianca

Deguzman, said the mural “is an expression of the community…and how we can find com-mon ground through our environment.”

In an effort to garner more student involve-ment and teach students mural painting tech-niques, Brill hired local artist Kathleen Kam to impart her expertise through a series of work-shops. Kam has been teaching art for 25 years and is certified to teach under Hawai‘i Art Al-liances. Kam helps the students to see beyond themselves as individual artists to “looking at it (the mural) as a unified vision.”

This is the first mural project by students that has been done at Hawai‘i Community College. Students al-ready involved in this venture are gaining a set of learned skills in art that can be used for future projects. Brill believes that addition-al mural projects could be funded in the wake of the current mural project.

The mural is being done completely by students and is open to UH Hilo students as well. During meet-ings to work on the mural, there have been anywhere from seven to 14 students present

and actively helping to bring the design into reality. Thus far the wall has been primed and gridded. The participating students have al-ready begun to apply the under paint as well.

According to Brill, there is still time to con-tribute to the mural, as the actual painting is set to commence on March 2, 2012. If you are interested in being a part of the mural proj-ect, contact Tobias Brill at tbrill@hawaii.edu. There is also a facebook page that is updated regularly with progress and meeting times. For that information, visit http://www.facebook.com/pages/HCC-2012-Mural-Project.

More student participation sought

Hawai‘i Community College Mural Project art concept by Bevin Kilfoyle. Photo courtesy of http://www.facebook.com/pages/HCC-2012-Mural-Project/233368116743913

Local artist Kathleen Kam instructs Hawai‘i Community College students in the scale of designs for the mural.

5

Sodexo chooses local firstMoving toward sustainability by supporting

local food and supply vendors

It started with an inquiry about why the Sodexo dumpsters were being locked, and quickly evolved into a lesson. The signs explaining Sodexo sustainability practices are posted everywhere inside the Campus

Center Dining Room, but who actually takes time to read them between busy class schedules and hungry stomachs?

“Local first” is the mantra of Sodexo General Manager Bridget Awong. The company is big on supporting small farmers island wide. This keeps the money on the Big Island, thereby boosting the local economy. According to Awong, if a major catastro-phe were to occur, the Big Island could only support itself for 10 days. Through continued support and partnerships with local farmers, the number of those days could increase, with Sodexo at the forefront of the initiative.

Sodexo is hoping to partner with the UH Hilo Department of Agriculture as suppliers of some food products. Honey bees that are raised on campus could produce honey for Sodexo. Also, there is the very real possibility that the Department of Agricul-ture could start supplying food from campus farms to campus dining.

There are two models for Sodexo to refer to: the rooftop gardens at the University of Hawai‘i Mānoa campus and the food gardens at Keaukaha School. UH Mānoa grows gardens on their roofs and supplies their cafeteria with fresh produce and fruits. The students at Keaukaha School maintain and harvest their school’s food gardens. The fruits and vegetables are taken directly to the cafeteria and properly cleaned before being served to students.

Sodexo currently buys as much as 60 percent of the food served from local sources; The goal is to reach 100 percent. If food items cannot be pur-chased on the Big Island, the next choice defaults to neighboring islands- O‘ahu, Maui, Kaua`i, and Moloka`i. Beyond that, California is as far away as Sodexo will go when it comes to food purchases. This is mainly done to reduce the food service’s car-bon footprint. Products bought from any of the outer islands are shipped to Oahu first before reaching the Big Island, increasing the distance products travel before reaching consumers here on the Big Island.

A prominent problem, unique to local farmers, is vog. This makes buying locally difficult because farmlands are prey to its influence. Entire fields have been ruined by vog exposure. One such tragic ex-ample is a watercress field where three acres were overcome by vog overnight, turning the watercress yellow. The farmers had to replant 3 million water-cress seeds.

In order to reduce solid waste, Sodexo uses 100 percent biodegrad-able utensils, carryout plates, cups and napkins. Sodexo also recycles its food scraps and oils. A local pig farmer comes in daily to inspect and col-lect slop buckets. This system not only eliminates solid waste, but serves to determine whether or not the dining hall is over-pro-ducing. All excess scraps from the piggery are dis-posed directly into a sew-age container so that no waste goes into the ground water.

The cooking oil is recycled into bio-diesel fuel. Numerous individual requests are made for the left-over oil, but Sodexo only gives the oil to a bio-diesel company in Kea‘au because it practices zero-waste procedures, thereby ensuring proper disposal.

Sodexo also participates in a year-long food drive and donates non-perishable foods to the Feed the Hungry and Helping Hands programs. To sup-port Relay for Life, Sodexo has bake sales and a concession stand where 100 percent of the proceeds go to the charity event. In 2011, the concession stand alone generated $1200.

Sodexo actively encourages students to practice sustainability in many ways. Students who buy a UH Hilo mug are able to sign up for the Ki`aha Club Card. The cardholder is entitled to 15 percent off drinks. The mug was designed by local market-ing graphic designers Darren and Susan Yugawa. If students use their own mug and present the card, they can still receive a 10 percent discount. The first Wednesday of the month features specials made

with 100 percent locally sourced foods. Students with the Ki`aha Club Card receive 15 percent off of these meals.

Students are recognizing what Sodexo is attempt-ing to do for the community. Said a UH Hilo Geol-ogy senior, “Personally I think some of their things are wasteful like their straws and tin foil, but overall I think they’re going in the right direction.” Another UH Hilo student, Astronomy major Chris Funada, said, “I think that Sodexo does do a good job about taking care of the environment,” but adds, “The food is still too expensive.”

Positive change can come at a price, but remem-bering that the food being served by Sodexo in UH Hilo’s dining rooms is likely the product of Big Is-land farmers might just provide the pleasant back-story for a great meal.

As for the question that set the wheels in mo-tion, Sodexo locks its dumpsters to discourage il-legal dumping. Apparently, people had been using the dumpsters to throw away old furniture and even computers. Such infractions lead to fines levied against Sodexo for improper use of the dumpster, so employees began locking them.

Dorothy Fukushima | Staff Writer

The illegal disposal of furniture and electronics caused Sodexo employees to restrict access to the dumpsters by locking them. Photos by Hi’inae Miller

Valenscience Day at `ImiloaLocal artists display their creative blend

of natural elements

`Imiloa Astronomy Center hosted Valenscience on Friday, Feb. 10, 2012. The free event featured the artwork of three local artists- Raven Hanna, Keith Beardsley and Punawai Rice. Their pieces included jewelry inspired by mol-ecules, elegant wood work and luxurious silk scarves. Live music and refresh-ments were also enjoyed by the public.

Along with meeting the three local artists, `Imiloa treated guests to “As-tronaut Strawberries,” either plain or in sparkling apple cider. A sampling of `Imiloa’s latest product, Hualalai Summit Cookies, was also available. Adults and children alike enjoyed dipping the assorted cookies into white chocolate that was uncolored, colored red or colored green.

The unique silver and gold jewelry from Hanna’s company, Made with Molecules, is a perfect link between the science community and general pub-lic. Hanna, a former molecular biophysicist with a Ph.D. from Yale Univer-sity, came up with the idea of molecule jewelry while searching for a necklace of her favorite molecule, serotonin (the neurotransmitter of happiness). When she realized that none existed, Hanna designed and made her own serotonin necklace. After receiving numerous compliments, Hanna found a new calling and founded her own jewelry line.

In honor of Valentine’s Day, Hanna offers a selection of dopamine jewelry. Dopamine, also a neurotransmitter, is responsible for the feel-good feelings people have when in love. Dopamine key chains, necklaces and earrings are available at her site www.madewithmolecules.com. As per her Earth-friendly policies, Hanna’s jewelry is made from recycled silver and gold and at least 1 percent of her profits are donated to environmental and science education non-profit groups.

Kieth Beardsley began woodworking as a hobby in grade school, which blossomed into an art form over a period of roughly 20 years. Beardsley’s works are only found on the Big Island, with `Imiloa being one of four loca-tions where they are sold. In what is perhaps a dying art, Beardsley crafts beautiful jewelry boxes from exotic woods, such as ambrosia and box elder. These particular woods get their brilliant patterns naturally, either from scar-ring, cracking, insects or even fungi.

His skills include crafting furniture, bracelets, flower holders and other such commissions. Beardsley also uses local woods, such as koa, milo, maca-damia and coconut. His bracelets, which are handmade, are often made from those materials. Beardsley also reuses woods that would otherwise be dis-carded. A shining example is a koa wood flower holder made out of wood rescued from the scrap pile.

Punawai Rice donated silk scarves from her Punawai line to Valenscience, with profits going to the `Imiloa Education Fund. Punawai is a local company run by husband and wife team Punawai Rice and Hokulani Kaikaina. Rice’s designs are a combination of chic and island flare, while Kaikaina sews his creations into life. The couple invested in a digital textile printer and can now transfer their designs onto the delicate silk.

Rice drew inspiration from `Imiloa’s garden, in particular from the ipu, 6

Dorothy FukushimaStaff Writer

which is featured on the scarves. Rice designs with the local woman in mind. Punawai hopes to add a local touch to a woman’s wardrobe by allowing her to accessorize with their items. In addition to scarves, Punawai also has neckties. Production of long ladies vests will soon be underway. In Rice’s words, Pu-nawai carries the hope to “inspire the next generation of explorers and innova-tors.”

Jewelry designer Raven Hanna stands next to some of her unique jewelry modeled after particular molecules.

Serotonin and dopamine, neurotransmitters that influence the emotions of happiness and love, respectively, provide the natural design for Hanna’s jewelry.

Light refreshments gave visitors an elegant feeling as they perused the various creative endeavors of local artists. Photos by Hi’inae Miller

The 180 Club is a registered independent student organization (RISO) consisting of a group of stu-dents who are dedicated to helping others and to liv-ing their lives in harmony with their Christian faith.

The club meets three times a week with an atten-dance of 10 or more people per meeting. Students have an open discussion about Bible scriptures and how to apply the teachings to their everyday lives. Says 180 Club president, graduating Performing Arts senior Rob Craddock, “You can disagree, you can challenge people’s thoughts, it’s all in a friendly environment. It’s good for people to be able to just talk about what Christianity is.”

Many of the members belong to Hilo Interna-tional Christian Church, which assists the 180 Club in their fundraising and outreach. In collaboration with the church, Computer Science major Marley Depew directs community service projects through the charity Mercy Worldwide. Depew says one of their ongoing projects is feeding the hungry. “Every fourth Wednesday we serve at the soccer fields. Last month we fed 55 people using food donated by the food bank.”

Depew says he first got involved with the 180 Club because one of his friends was a member. “I didn’t grow up Christian. I grew up as an atheist. I have a friend who has been coming to meetings who is from a Buddhist background. Before 180 Club, I was introverted, shallow. My life was about school; getting up, going to school, going home, doing it all again. 180 Club has changed my whole purpose, and my whole perspective on the world. It gave me hope.”

Trever Paschall, a 180 Club member since 2009, says he didn’t go to the Bible talks at first, but he goes now because he likes to hear everyone’s opin-ions. “It’s opinions, but it always comes back to the Scripture. It’s helpful for us to have other people around. I never really went to church until I started going to this group.”

Paschall assisted with childcare at the clubs last Mercy Day- a party held in December at Aunt Sally’s Luau House where homeless and impover-ished children were given food and Christmas gifts. Says Paschall, “One time we helped a family that had no electricity. We helped them with their elec-tricity, made small repairs to their home.” The 180 Club also built an outhouse for Waters of Life Pub-lic Charter School and painted the school’s gym, bleachers and some classrooms. Money for the ma-terials was donated by Hilo International Christian Church. Marley adds that “Home Depot helped out a lot with materials, too.”

Says Felicia Tahutini, an Accounting major, “Pretty much everything is volunteer. It’s our per-sonal choice how much we want to help out.” She says she got involved for the fellowship and the ac-countability with her life. “My life can get really complicated. I have friends who lead me back to the Scriptures and remind me that God is always there for me. It keeps me going. Having that foundation helps me to persevere through any obstacles.” Ta-hutini says members often get together for sports activities, movies and events. People from all back-grounds are invited.

Craddock says they like to have food at their meetings. The members volunteer to bring what they are able to pay for out of their own pockets. The 180 Club does not ask for any funding from UHHSA. Says Craddock, “To get money from

UHHSA is really difficult, there’s a lot of ropes you have to go over, so we’ve just found other effective resources.”

In the club’s early years, members endured attacks and accusations of being a cult. Members like Crad-dock realize that falling out of favor with some people because of one’s beliefs is not necessarily an uncom-mon experience. He knows it “always comes back to the Bible.”

“We don’t personally attack anyone; we don’t make judgment calls. That’s not us. We speak for all people. We’re all human, we understand each other, we know that times get hard and people need help. For us, we ask people to let us show them what the Bible means for us, and if they don’t agree, it’s fine. If you ever need help, you know where to find us. We love everyone.”

The 180 Club meets in the dorms every Tues-day at 7 p.m., at Hawai‘i Community College on Wednesdays at 1 p.m. and in Campus Center every Friday at 1 p.m. Contact robbie-craddock@hawaii.edu or loa’apine@hawaii.edu for more details.

7

Club President Rob Craddock: “We ask people to let us show them what the Bible means for us…If you ever need help, you know where to find us. We love everyone.”

Dorothy Fukushima | Staff Writer

Collaboration, community, and ChristianityPutting faith into action

Photo taken by Bren Chance

Ezekiel Reissig enjoys the company and the open fo-rum for sharing and discussion.

Weekly meetings give members and guests an opportunity to openly discuss Bible Scriptures and how to apply their teachings to everyday lives.

Pastor Jay Hernandez helps members see just how the teach-ings of the Bible can help them in their everyday lives.

From left to right: Marie Epping, Tanya Wynn and Cristyal Bana-hisa at the weekly Bible study gathering.

Hi’inae Miller

Hi’inae Miller

Hi’inae Miller

Hi’inae Miller

8

Sociology inside and outProfiling professor of Sociology, Dr. Thomas Curtis

Michael PankowskiNews Editor

UH Hilo strives to provide each of its students with applied learning experiences. Some professors have an uncanny way of making the local environment open up like the pages of a text book, and others have the ability to do the same

thing, only with the entire world. Dr. Thomas Curtis is one of the “oth-ers.” He sees how life experiences become the basis for understanding academic learning and the context in which that learning is best applied.

Dr. Curtis, professor of Sociology, is how those who have not taken a class from him may know him. Those who have probably know a great deal more about him, not just because of the time spent listening to his lectures, but because he has a unique way of bringing his world into the classroom. Since 1995, Dr. Curtis’s particular brand of instruction has filtered firsthand experience through his course topics. If, for example, his course is focused on the sociology of disaster, Dr. Curtis shares his research and field experience in the context of disaster theory.

He believes that the application of a discipline like Sociology is best taught through those experiences, and he feels that this approach is in line with his department’s outlook. “We consider ourselves to be an applied Sociology program,” explained Dr. Curtis during an interview with Ke Kalahea news editor, Michael Pankowski. “That is that most of our focus is on how do you actually use this knowledge that we’re teaching you in the real world.”

He appears to be reaching his target audience: the students.Sociology major Mike Sado admits to receiving a more universal out-

look on the information he has been exposed to in Dr. Curtis’s classroom. “I think his ability to break down information to an understandable level is one of his strong points,” commented Sado. “That is what makes him a really strong instructor. To the point where, you know, students don’t have to have their head down in these text books all of the time.”

It is not an ability he woke up with one morning. “I share [different experiences] to help students to understand that we aren’t born as profes-sors. That there’s a lot of life experiences that go in,” said Dr. Curtis. For him, this is no exaggeration.

As far back as his childhood in Seattle, Washington, Dr. Curtis was a student of society and its institutions. “That I grew up in an adoptive fos-ter family…and so I have had a lot of different experiences and challenges as I was growing up,” he said. This brief statement was all he would say about his earliest years, but he concluded the summary by explaining his aversion to using those challenges for anything other than a learning ex-perience while teaching.

According to Dr. Curtis, a more apparent catalyst for his current style of instruction can be found in his bachelor’s degree in Communications from Pacific Lutheran University. He graduated from the Tacoma, Wash-ington university in 1978 and turned his degree into a broadcasting career.

Starting out as a journalist over the airwaves, Dr. Curtis eventually found himself part owner of a variety of broadcasting entities. By the late 1980s he had vested interest in parts of television and radio stations in states like Montana, Wyoming and North and South Dakota. He also maintained part ownership of pay television services located in other states.

This first career lasted until the late 1980s. “And it was then that my wife and I decided that it was time for us to make some changes and go

a different direction,” Dr. Curtis said in memory of his decision to return to academia and undertake graduate studies. “I was very clear on what I wanted to do when I went back to graduate school. I wanted to get a degree that would be in, a clinical degree. So a degree in some type of psychotherapeutic profession and also a research degree.”

The change in direction included finding ways to employ some of the free time that he and his wife, Sue, had in service of the community. “My wife and I decided we wanted to find something in the community we could do together with our wide interests,” Dr. Curtis said. Prior to gradu-ate school he had already been a volunteer for evacuation aid and setting up shelters.

With these experiences in mind, Mr. and Mrs. Curtis signed up with the American Red Cross disaster services around 1989. The Red Cross position was the perfect outlet for Dr. Curtis’ graduate studies. He re-ceived his master’s degree by 1992 in Marriage and Family Counseling from Montana State University. Subsequently, Dr. Curtis was certified as one of the early disaster mental health specialists for the American Red Cross. “Then, for my doctoral dissertation, I researched child abuse in the wake of natural disasters,” Dr. Curtis explained. He held a thick, black hardcover book containing his dissertation with the year 1995 stamped on its spine. This was the same year Dr. Curtis had earned his Ph.D. in Fam-ily and Human Development from Utah State University.

It was with a resume that included a bachelor’s degree, a master’s de-gree, a Ph.D. and a long term role with the American Red Cross that Dr. Curtis began his search for the right place to apply his already vast collec-tion of personal experience.

“The more research that I did into the psychological and sociological impacts of disasters, I recognized that was the direction I wanted to go with my studies,” he explained. “The most disaster prone county in the U.S. is Hawai‘i County.” Because of the Big Island’s natural laboratory for disaster study, Dr. Curtis felt that it was the perfect place for him to apply his expertise. “And actually it was the only place that I applied to coming out of grad school and was fortunate enough to be hired into a position in 1995 to teach over at the Kona campus.”

At that time, UH Hilo offered Sociology and several other bachelor’s degrees at University of Hawai‘i Center at West Hawai‘i in Kona. Dr. Curtis directed the Sociology program there for four years. In 1999, the program was discontinued. Dr. Curtis and his family consequently trans-ferred their lives to Hilo where he accepted an assistant professor position.

During his stint in Kona with the UH Center at West Hawai‘i, Dr. Cur-tis’s work with the American Red Cross became more dynamic. He be-came Hawai‘i’s first certified disaster mental health instructor. Among the many disasters he responded to was the 1997 Korean Air flight 801 crash in Guam. His volunteer work with the families of victims and survivors was acknowledged with a Certificate of Appreciation. More potent are the reminders he keeps hanging from a file cabinet in his office; The enlarged printouts show the mangled fuselage of the Boeing 747 strewn across a hillside.

“That’s me walking down right there,” he said, pointing to a figure with its back to the camera. “But after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, be-cause of my experience with disaster mental health, as soon as airplanes were able to fly again, I was flown first to Texas for a few days to set up a

Professor Profile

hotline for American Airlines and United Airlines flight crews.” In the wake of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, Dr. Curtis helped to establish a 24 hour hotline that offered sup-port for the emotionally affected crew members of the two airline companies.

“Then I was reassigned back up to New York and my primary assignment was at New York Presbyterian Hospital in the Cor-nell University Burn Unit where the 18 most seriously injured survivors from the World Trade Center had been taken.

“While in New York, I decided that when I returned that I was going to use the skills that I had to try and do what I could to see that we’re better protected in the future from that type of attack,” he explained during the interview.

Despite the emotional and physical toll he endured, Dr. Cur-tis’s time in New York invigorated his academic drive. From his initial position as instructor at UH Hilo, Dr. Curtis progressed through the university promotion system. In 2002 he was award-ed tenured status and promoted to associate professor, and “even-tually, a few years ago, promoted to full professor.” In that time he has also served as the Sociology department chair and been a member of search, gender equity, promotion & tenure, division personnel and summer school committees for the university.

The sum of this wealth of life experience equals a rich tool box from which Dr. Curtis draws the building blocks for his unique brand of instruction.

Sociology major Victoria Vrooman said his courses take a different perspective than the normal one given in the Sociol-ogy discipline. She also felt that his volunteer work with the Red Cross allows him to “relate it to the students more.”

According to Dr. Curtis, Sociology majors at UH Hilo have a unique opportunity to relate to his lessons in their own way. Directed studies courses, research projects, internship programs and other individualized application experiences are providing majors with a myriad of real life applications of Sociology. “We have 25 interns this semester,” said Dr. Curtis. “It’s a really broad range. Red Cross, the emergency operations center, the women’s shelter, the county transportation department, prosecutor’s of-fice, the public defender’s office…and that’s probably a third of them we have out this semester.”

Unfortunately for future Sociology graduates, the current eco-nomic climate and administrative decision making at UH Hilo may stifle the reach of professors like Dr. Curtis. He expressed deep concern that the impressive amount of course offerings that help students apply their Sociology degree in the labor force may soon begin to disappear. “We have not been able to replace two of our teachers who have retired. Without them we simply can-not not offer the number of classes needed by our students to finish their degrees on time, and we will not be able to offer the variety of electives that makes our degree so valuable to those entering the workforce.

“What I’m saying is we need to be able to make the decisions as an institution.” These are the decisions, according to Dr. Cur-tis, that have to do with how resources are allocated. Dwindling resources in the Sociology department may curb its ability to continue to provide an adequate education to a growing number of majors. “Sociology has grown from about 90 majors in 2010 to 130 majors this year, but we are offering fewer classes now than we have at any time in the past fifteen years,” said Dr. Curtis. Ac-cording to statistics provided by UH Hilo’s institutional research analyst, the total number of students taking Sociology courses (non-majors included) jumped as well. In fall 2011 semester, 315 students were enrolled in Sociology classes, and for this spring 2012 semester, Sociology faculty instruct 373 students.

The increasing number of students majoring in and taking Sociology courses has led Dr. Curtis to acknowledge the poten-tial side effects of continuing to stretch the shrinking cache of resources.

“That if [the university] does not have the resources to offer all of the programs that it’s offering now, it’s going to need to be selective in reducing the programs.” Using Sociology only as an example, Dr. Curtis said simply that, “If we don’t decide that we’re going to provide the resources then it’s just going to hap-pen by attrition somehow or another.”

When asked about the consequences of hypothetically cutting majors at UH Hilo, Dr. Curtis said, “Inevitably I think that’s the direction the university’s going to need to go.” A.B.

9

“You must have plagiarized this paper because locals don’t use big words.” This moment is etched in the mind of Dr. Seri Luangphinith. One profes-

sor at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa changed the course of her life. Though she eventually found those words to be a sideways compliment, she was nonetheless shocked by the statement, which made her realize that she “needed to do something about education. By becoming a teacher, I could help change the bigoted attitudes toward students.”

Become a teacher she did. Leaving behind Political Science and a budding career at the State Judiciary, Seri decided on a Ph.D. in English. Teaching started first with a stint as a graduate teaching fellow at her alma mater, the University of Oregon, then at Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon. When asked how she wound up back on the Big Island teaching, she attrib-uted it to clear “luck.” Hawai‘i-Pacific Literature is Seri’s specialty, and at the time of a University of Hawai‘i at Hilo professor’s retirement, Seri just happened to be a scrappy “upstart” on the job market. It was a dream come true for the theory-spitting professor. She was coming home. A foot in the door was all she needed. The associate professor of English would work on knocking the wood plank down herself.

Faith in the underdogSeri naturally roots for the underdog. It may be something that clicked

that day in the classroom at Manoa. Maybe it was too many pages in theory books, or maybe it is something that she keeps buried in herself, but either way, Seri knows what it is like to fight from the back of the pack. She never gives up on a student, regardless of background or previous academic stand-ing. She wishes to shed light on those who were banished to darkness, give hope to the hopeless, and bring empowerment, through words, to those who have been oppressed and quieted.

Her belief in the underdog seeps out in her work with the stray cats on campus as well as her book, “Ku Kilakila: Writing From the Big Island.” Inspired by the 1970s work of the Talk Story gang, Seri wanted to let the Big Rock shine one more time. The anthology, which was funded through the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, our Board of Student Publications and the Office of Student Equity, Excellence and Diversity, bands together students, alumni and professional writers, bringing to the forefront the healthy mass of literature that has been composed and focused on the island of Hawai‘i. As Seri pointed out in an interview, “Sometimes the home turf needs to speak for itself…know what I mean?”

That last statement encompasses Seri as an educator. She speaks to me and other students as if she’s one of the homeys sitting on the stoop. She sees the struggle of others and feels that education has been slanted to suit the top of

our nation’s hierarchy for too long. All bell hooks once said, “Education as a tool of colonization, that serves to teach students allegiance to the status quo, has been so much the accepted norm...”

The words from her hero, early in her career, gave Seri the incentive to move forward and fight to reform education. She realizes the many ways education has been used. Antonio Gramsci bitterly complained of the edu-cated elites as the harbingers of class oppression; Louis Althusser himself would call it an Ideological State Apparatus. Seri recognizes these challenges in approaching educational reform. She proclaims that “education involves a natural hierarchy. It can easily warp into a framework for controlling and suppressing people.”

A small woman and her big responsibility to her students and herself

Seri Luangphinith tells her students to drop the “Dr.” Her name is Seri, and this is what she expects to be called by those she teaches. One would expect a small woman to overcompensate with titles, degrees and jargon, but Seri does anything but. She tackles responsibilities with a passion and takes furthering UH Hilo and the English major very seriously.

Though she was brought to the university for her expertise in Hawai‘i-Pacific Literature and Postcolonial Theory, her main duties entail teaching freshman composition and 200-level courses, along with her upper-division courses in multicultural theory, pedagogy, literature and film. Her theory classes open one’s eyes to the many social constructions that affect our ev-eryday interpretation of the world.

But all of this means that Seri is constantly educating herself on new topics and canons. She views every semester as a chance to learn new things about education. Teaching is a year-round grind for her. She also utilizes summer, winter and spring break researching for potential publications. Furthermore, Seri has travelled the globe, presenting her academic work. She travelled to Oxford in September 2011 to present her work on Asian immigrant writers in the Pacific. The following month she found herself in Manila to speak about multicultural challenges to higher education assessment.

Her academic work has led to her presence in many academic conferences throughout the United States and abroad. She was recently asked to be one of four facilitators at the recent WASC (Western Association of Schools and Colleges, the accrediting body of colleges in the California/Pacific region) and will be soon presenting in South Africa on multicultural challenges in assessment at the invitation of Umalusi, the accrediting body of that country.

Outcome-based learning and universal skillsAmong the new innovations Seri studies is outcomes-based learning.

Rather than just teaching a course for a specific topic, Seri starts with goals of students, then “works backwards with the c u r r i c u l u m ” to achieve those goals. Rather than preparing students for their next class, she tries to de-velop her classes so that students can apply their learning in meaningful ways outside the classroom. In her upper-division courses, stu-dents have the freedom to help shape their final projects, flexibility that allows students to direct their education to fit their ends, whether it be graduate school or the profes-sional world. The ends dictate the means, as opposed to the means dictating the ends.

Another goal of Seri’s is to instill universal skills in students. Rather than content-based learning, universal skills translate to any realm of education and career. This is one reason why Seri believes English is such an important major. The major facilitates learning

Professor Profile

Anthony Holzman-EscarenoE.I.C. & Sports Writer

Outcomes:a different way to teach

Photo: wasksenior.org

10

11

in analysis and critical thinking, which are “applicable across disciplines and occupations.” The major’s stress on writing prepares students to excel in “written communication,” which is vital for any business or government sector.

As for English’s validity as an important major, she reaches back to Mi-chelangelo. “I think we forget that STEM isn’t what made the Renaissance in Italy possible. Michelangelo was both a scientist and an artist, not to mention one hell of a poet.” While recognizing that across the nation, language and literature departments have come under threat, she firmly believes that the English major teaches skills vital to students’ success post-college.

Assessment Seri has committed much of her time to the area of assessment, which is an

offshoot of outcomes-based learning. She feels strongly that giving students and faculty a voice in this new requirement for accreditation is also a means of empowering the many. In other words, the more who know about assess-ment and accreditation, the more it can be a community-driven process as opposed to the dictates of one or a few.

She is currently chair of the eleven-member Assessment Support Com-mittee. This committee is a requirement for our school’s accreditation. Her early work back in 2010 gained the recognition of Amy Driscoll, a key as-sessment expert of WASC. Her committee’s rubrics were recently featured in the WASC Assessment 101 handbook because they do what no other college has done before—integrate multiple skills in a single rubric meant to measure student success. For example, the rubric measures information literacy, com-munication and analytic reasoning, while simultaneously measuring critical thinking as well, meaning that when the time comes to assess large bodies of student work, multiple skills can be registered.

This work prompted Amy Driscoll and then Vice Chancellor Phil Castillle to nominate her for the WASC Leadership Academy. The one-year training course builds and sharpens leadership in faculty members in the area of as-sessment. This training is being put to use as she now directs the Assessment Support Committee’s revision of Academic Program Review. Her expertise is also what prompted her nomination to the State Department of Education’s English Language Arts Panel. Her efforts in assessing English 100 classes are part of ongoing reforms in secondary education.

All of this work in assessment asserts Seri as an asset to our university. It only makes sense that a teacher who is connected with her students has a major role in the assessment of our university. After all, assessment comes down to evaluating not just teachers, but students, which is why she is also facilitating independent student work evaluating proposed changes to the ac-creditation guidelines. In addition, Seri is keen to keep the Humanities’ values squarely at the center of a “liberal arts” degree.

She cites Robert Stenberg, provost of Oklahoma State University, who gave a talk in Manila about the current short-sighted approach to education. Seri says she was inspired by these words: “Crises in leadership in politics and business are not because people are dumb. Many leaders graduate from some of the top academic schools, and you cannot account for everyone hav-ing had a chance to buy a degree. No, many of them are smart, but what they lack are empathy, commitment to their fellow men and to society, an understanding of how their personal actions have consequences felt by others, humility and a sense of ethics. These are often ignored by education, except in

Humanities classes where we regularly drill students on analyzing these and other related issues.”

These are the values Seri hopes to keep at the forefront of education.

Her department storeSeri loves to shop, but this is definitely not the pun in the headline. Seri

believes that the English major needs some new outfits in its closet. As the former chair of the department, she helped to streamline the major (there were four areas of specialization that the department simply couldn’t offer any more given its staffing shortage), but her biggest regret is in not being able to get rhetoric and creative writing more fully developed. But while the lack of sufficient staff would usually entail a loss of certain subject matter, such as the aforementioned areas, the English department finds a way to get it all in. They seamlessly weave rhetoric and creativity into their classrooms. Whether it is a creative non-fiction class with Dr. Mark Panek, a literature course with Dr. Jennifer Wheat or a theory class from Seri, each of these classes, along with others, make up for the lack of faculty that the English department is currently facing.

Despite the expansive offerings the major provides, the department has experienced downsizing in previous years. They have lost three positions over the last few years and also have three full-time professors who currently do not teach. Seri also feels that English majors are being hampered by the need for their professors to teach so many 100- and 200-level writing courses. She loves her specialty--Hawai‘i-Pacific Literature--but due to the teacher shortage, she acknowledges her de facto specialty of “filling holes.” She says, “I take a look at what gaps we have every term then create classes to fill them, so I have to teach all kinds of stuff, including film, which is a stretch for me, but I think I’m doing okay, go ask Mike.”

The “Mike” who Seri refers to is Ke Kalahea News Editor Michael Pankowski. Pankowski says, “She’s done a great deal to help me understand the application of literary theory and texts to my experiences. From Disney’s place in American culture to the English major’s place in higher institutions, she has an animated way of imparting information that often helps me make the important connections.”

Despite teachers’ responsibilities to lower-division classes, Seri does her job. She sees the lower-division classes as an opportunity to recruit potential majors. She is even “team-teaching” an English 100T class with two upper-classsmen as a means for them to accrue the necessary training and hours to enter the Master of Education program, where they can become high-school teachers. Despite the rigorous hours put into teaching both students and pro-spective teachers, the reward is creating an environment for high-schoolers and college freshman that enables them to be prepared for further education and life. In many ways, it is the cultivation of the next generation of teachers that is proving the most rewarding for Seri. She writes, “Many young Ameri-cans blame the current generation and the status quo for the mess we are in. So I tell them, yes, it may end up falling on your shoulders to lead the way. Don’t wait--get started. Be the revolution you desire.”

“Albert Wendt, a famous novelist from Samoa, once said, when he wanted to know about a place and its history, he’d read lit-

erature from that place. Facts and numbers don’t give you the larger picture of human emotion and conflict (all the grey areas in life) that one needs to understand the hu-

man condition. That is what literature does. It gives us all the grey areas in life that

cannot be answered by a yes or no; It gives us a chance to see the human element when confronting a range of issues. It also gives us a chance to reflect on who we are, what we do and why. Without literature, all you

may have is facts and figures. What kind of world would that be?”

“My most rewarding work is training the next generation

to take the lead in driving reform. Whether it be as

teachers or lawyers, what I try to instill in students is the

drive to change what they consider broken in society.”

Photo: Bryan Patterson

The 2012 Chinese New Year Festival

Chinese Water Dragon brings downpour to downtown

Le’a GleasonA&C Editor

Sun peeked through the clouds one lovely Saturday morning, just as demanding drops forced their way past the glorious rays and poured down the sky, soaking the people that scurried like ants below. Here and there children in rain boots darted through nature’s sprinkler, while adults ducked under dripping tents to avoid the rain.

The Tenth Annual Chinese New Year celebration hit Hilo this February, bringing with it the flaming and fiery year of the water dragon, saying goodbye to the loving but finicky rabbit of last year. With 2012 bringing some controversial issues to the table, founder and coordinator Alice Moon was no stranger to creating an adequately forward thinking, community centered celebration with a little something for everyone.

“On Hawai’i Island there are no large, free community events celebrating THE most impor-tant holiday of many Asian countries, the Lunar New Year…we have a large Chinese popula-tion, and it’s really a responsibility to those people to create something to acknowledge and celebrate them,” Moon said.

Moon, who previously owned the festival and event planning business Alice Moon & Com-pany, has been planning this event for 10 years. Moon feels that his holiday is a particularly important one for Hilo town to celebrate.

“Traditions around the holiday are based on honoring ancestors and bringing family together - at the Hilo Chinese New Year Festival, for one day, we are all family.”

The festival has welcomed HawCC as part of its celebratory family for several years now, with demonstrations and food samples provided by Culinary Arts staff and students. Busy chefs with little time to notice the moisture in the air darted around a packed tent skirting pots of boil-ing water to plate their delicious fare. Among the spread this year was a delightful pasta with vegetarian marinara sauce and braised pork belly with Asian slaw.

“Faculty and students get to enjoy the festivities, get great exposure for their program, learn about Chinese culture, and, most importantly, get to be a part of downtown’s growth, and, by do-ing so, develop stronger connections with the community. It’s a great opportunity to bring town and gown together -- there aren’t really that many collaborations going on between downtown and UHH/HawCC, in my opinion, and this is part of my agenda with the festival,” Moon said.

Nearby, a zero waste station dreamed up by Moon and friends offered an alternative to the volumes of trash typically generated by an event of such magnitude.

“The concept that I envisioned was to have a portable four- or five-bin zero waste unit with an educational component (signs, logos, volunteer people guiding) that could be packed onto a trailer and delivered and picked up at event venues which could be easily replicated. Thanks to Katie Schwind and others, we set up a rudimentary sample of a four-bin system in Kalakaua Park for the event,” said Moon.

Signs and volunteers directed event-goers as to which bin to throw their trash into. Many of those who went to throw compostable forks and paper plates into the trash bin were surprised to be redirected to a designated compostable bin, only to find that their trash was not really “trash” at all. For Moon, the idea is that if events consistently feature this system, people will begin to recognize it.

“If we had these units at every single festival and/or event then people would begin to rec-ognize and use the methodology without volunteer explaining,” she said. “We are hoping to find someone to design and develop [the system] to be portable - one thought is to involve UHH and/or HawCC classes to design and build these units and start using them at campus events,” Moon said.

The downpour was no deterrent to attendance or action at the event, as vendors served up everything from doughnuts to smoothies to Thai food. Booths offered Chinese crafts, free I Ch-ing readings and more. Entertainers, including Rulin Xiu, who performed beautiful Chinese folk songs, kept the crowd lively.

But the real star of the show? An almost block-long dragon who danced throughout the crowd, manned by both Chinese dancers and community members. And to top it all off, this yearly event was once again free of charge.

“In a sense events that involve a fee are excluding a very large part of our community, per-haps that part of the community that needs it the most - isn’t it just as important, if not more so, that these folks have access to culture and art? My motto is: Access to Art for ALL!” Moon said.

Looking towards the coming year, Moon said, “I’m not the Chinese astrology expert but from what I’ve read or heard from those more expert than I…the year of the dragon can be a very prosperous time, if we acknowledge and respect the power of prosperity. My personal hope is that the Hilo (and our island) community learns to understand and harness the energy the water dragon has to offer and remembers to give back to the communities most in need.”

Moon added that she would like to thank Sig Zane and Bob and Lily Chow for guidance, energy and support over the last 10 years.

HawCC’s Culinary Arts program was on hand to provide samples including Wang Bao, a dish made of braised pork belly on a fresh baked roll, with Asian slaw and pickled radish garnish.

Two lions dance with firecrackers to ward away spirits in a hopeful bless-ing for the new year.

Photo: Alice Moon

Photo: Lea Black

Photo: Lea Gleason

12

cats

Population of UH Hilo’s furry friends explainedChelsea Alward| A & C writer

Have you ever wondered why there are so many cats on campus? Or perhaps why those fine felines refuse friendship to even the most

welcoming arms? Perhaps you haven’t noticed them at all, but they live, walk and meow among us. And here’s why: The cats you see on campus are feral.

If you’re unfamiliar with the term, the UH Hilo Animal Policy defines fe-

ral cats as “once domestic animals that have reverted to an untamed state.” “If you look throughout the community there are several feral cat popu-

lations,” said Dr. Kim Kozuma, practicing veterinarian and advisor to the Big Island Pre-vet Club. “You’ll see them at dumps, you’ll see them at Wailoa park... It’s unfortunately a very common problem, and the UH Hilo campus is no exception.”

Regarding the cat population on campus, Colin Kettleson, director of auxiliary services for UH Hilo, said, “One of the problems we have is that this is a campus without borders so cats can wander in and out, and some people are aware that the feral cats are supported [so] we get drop offs; drive-bys. And those aren’t spayed and neutered.

“There were some people that were very sympathetic to the cats, [who] wanted to make sure that [the cats] received proper care,” said Kettleson.

However, although individuals hoping to take care of the cats had good intentions, Kettleson said that it only made the problem worse.

“They were all volunteers and they were all doing their own thing in a variety of areas, in a variety of differ-ent ways,” said Kettleson. “They kind of informally started networking to-gether, and the result of that was more cats, not less cats or managed cats.”

According to Kettleson, efforts to aid these furry friends affected the cat population.

“They’re feral, so if they don’t have what they need, they will go to what they need. Whether or not it’s shel-ter, or water or food. The people that feed them did not cause the problem, but they certainly made a welcoming environment,” Kettleson said.

The university decided that the best avenue would be to institute a policy that benefited volunteers with structure while maintaining the

health of the campus, Kettleson explained.Dr. Kozuma and a group of students as well as volunteers from the com-

munity have undertaken the challenge of caring for the feral cat population that inhabits the UH Hilo campus.

“The cats will always be around,” said Kozuma, “[but] the goal is to re-duce their numbers, stop their reproduction… we want to stop the problem and keep it in check.”

Kozuma and the Pre-vet club practice a Trap, Neuter, Release (TNR) program and regularly monitor the cats’ health. As a solution to the issue of the feral cat population, UH Hilo instituted a policy that Dr. Kozuma stated is very similar to the national TNR program.

The UH Hilo Animal Policy states that “feral animals are allowed to in-habit the campus grounds on the condition that they are not a risk and do not represent a hazard, cause property damage, or create a public nuisance.”

The policy goes on to include the stipulations for said inhabitance and where and how the cats are to be cared for.

“A lot of thought went into the development of this policy,” said Interim Vice Chancellor for Administrative Affairs Dr. Marcia Sakai, who believes that the most effective solution is the one currently in place. The program aids in managing the cat population by using the trap and neuter technique, she explained.

“Obviously we don’t want to promote any situation that creates a health risk for our campus,” said Sakai. “[However,] attempts to completely re-move the cats may not be successful. Given that there are feral cats in Hilo, should we create vacuum by removing the campus population, other cats would come in.”

Accorging to Kettleson, UH Hilo seems to be in a love hate relationship with the felines that we glimpse in our day to day life, with some individuals showing compassion, some confused and others agitated at their presence.

“Some people make their own rules, or ignore the rules,” said Kettleson of the cat caretakers not involved in the program.

For Kettleson, another issue surrounds the policy in place as well.“The policy [states] that the cat feeding stations are supposed to be away

from the buildings around the campus. I have suggested a slight revision.” that policy to say, “in the undeveloped sections of campus,” because if yre in the middle of campus, how far away is a building?”

Chinese Water Dragon brings downpour to downtownon

campus

13

Photos: Lea Black

continued on page 17

Noelani Waters | A&C Writer

Kahili ginger lines the curling Pee-peekeo cane road as you come upon

a lo’i nested deep between two voluptuous green hills. Small forests of coffee and ca-cao lace this Hamakua farm where suc-culent vanilla vines with otherworldly pods weigh heavily on the trunks of young cacao. Each pod ranges in vibrant color from deep maroon to gold to electric orange.

Beyond them, a grid of coffee trees spans wide past the chocolate, their waxy green leaves contrasting the red berries lin-ing each branch. Your senses are spoiled with colors and smells, textures and sounds, but you quickly learn that taste is the main attraction at Shark’s coffee and chocolate farm.

Tom Sharky is a farmer and small busi-ness owner who has found success in bring-ing a product directly from farm to market. The combined efforts of Sharky and his small crew produce some of the most deli-cious flavors: coffee, vanilla and chocolate. On this land you can be a rare witness to the entire transformation that coffee berries and cacao pods take to become brewed coffee and chocolate bars.

In 2008 Sharky opened up his own cof-fee shop in downtown Hilo at the base of Wai’anuenue Avenue and has since been

stocking it with homegrown coffee and chocolate made from fresh cacao and va-nilla. On the menu you’ll find much more than just coffee. The tasty options span from turkey melts and breakfast bagels to custom shakes and smoothies. In addition, Shark’s coffee, chocolate and macadamia nuts can also be found at the Farmer’s Market in downtown Hilo on Wednesdays and Satur-days. Chocolate making classes and farm

tours are also offered. Hailing from Haight Street in San Fran-

cisco, Sharky is an innovative, humble and wildly driven individual who has led a life painted with the colors of farming and teach-ing; He has explored grape growing and wine making, as well as maintaining apple orchards and vegetable crops.

His philosophy is both lighthearted and straightforward: “I love making stuff out of things I grow. That’s the bottom line,” he said. “Being a farmer is like having a kid. You’re constantly learning. If you plant it, make sure it grows. If you pick it, make sure it’s ripe. Ask, listen, love.”

As his business and farming operations grow, Sharky is at work helping others grow cacao and coffee. To support the demand for ono fresh coffee, he supplements his homegrown coffee with that of other small-scale local farmers in Hamakua; It always remains 100 percent island grown. He of-

From farm to marketHilo’s Shark’s coffee & chocolate

Photo behind title: Cacao beans during the drying out phase of being transformed into chocolate! Pho-tos clockwise from top left corner: 1. Cacao pods, 2, The Shark Shack in downtown Hilo, 3. Coffee blos-soms, 4. A cacao bean sprouting into a new plant, 5. Coffee beans before roasting (in hand) and after, 6. Coffee berries line a branch, 7. Jolynn, a happy customer at the Shark Shack, 8. Purte cacao paste.

“I love making stuff out of things I grow. That’s

the bottom line,” he said. “Being a farmer is like

having a kid. You’re con-stantly learning. If you plant it, make sure it

grows. If you pick it, make sure it’s ripe.

Ask, listen, love.” - Tom Sharky

SHARK’s continued on page 17

Photos: Lea Black

15

If you can text, you can type!

- Save the Hawaiian legacy for future generations! -COMPTON | Staff Writer

Resulting from lack of funds to hire, a rejected grant and the men-tion of a Hawaiian language project moving to Cambodia, like Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr., Puakea Nogelmeier, executive director of the non-profit organization Awaiaulu, had a dream.

According to Awaiaulu’s website, the organization is “dedicated to de-veloping resources and resource-people that can bridge Hawaiian knowl-edge from the past to the present and the future.”

Nogelmeier’s dream revealed a grassroots movement to recruit volun-teers to help perpetuate that very mission and to complete a project that would make century old Hawaiian-language newspapers word searchable for future generations.

The mission? Making thousands of pages of Hawaiian text google-ac-cessible. The challenge: wrangling a volunteer force dedi-cated enough to transcribe 60,000 pages by July 31, 2012.

According to Kauʻi Sai-Dudoit, project-outreach man-ager for ʻIke Kūʻokaʻa, 110 Hawaiian-language news-papers, totaling 125,000 pages, were published between 1834 and 1948. Only 75,000 have been found and made into digital images, and only 15,000 are currently word-searchable.

Although the pool of volunteers is increasing, and those involved are working hard, there is still much work to be done.

“We are currently organizing a second push to engage people everywhere, with an emphasis on the Hawaiian community,” said Sai-Dudoit.

Recognizing the need to have control over one’s own history, Sai-Dudoit, a history buff, has spent most of her adult life digging through archival material to learn the truth of Hawaiʻi’s history, but she placed emphasis on the fact that “this is our last hurrah to once and for all bring this important resource to our people and the future gen-erations of Hawaiians and Hawaiʻi.”

Ninety one days have passed since the launch of this massive project on Nov. 28, 2011, which commemorated Lā Kūʻokaʻa (Independence Day), yet less than 2000 pag-es of the 60,000 pages in waiting have been type scripted, and the 2,846 volunteers currently registered, most of them located on Oʻahu, need help.

You don’t have to be or speak Hawaiian in order to participate in the project, and it seems people all over the world are volunteering.

“We are told, by letter or tale, that we have people in at least eight countries: Japan, New Zealand, France, Germany, Netherlands, Canada, Mexico and England,” says Nogelmeier.

Yet, as the community emphasizes the need to “keep it local,” Nogel-meier stresses, “This project was an attempt to keep the kuleana [responsi-bility] Hawai’i-based, and to familiarize a larger audience with the critical importance of the resource.”

Nogelmeier, who has worked with Hawaiian newspapers since he be-gan learning the language in the 70s, stresses the importance for project completion.

“This body of Hawaiian language newspapers will furnish researchers of all disciplines with a wealth of primary resources and provide a rare perspective of nineteenth century Hawai’i as seen through the eyes of its people,” said Nogelmeier.

Understanding written history of any culture also means digging deeper and learning who authored writ-ten history and what their views were. This is an ex-tremely rare opportunity for any culture.

Being Hawaiian, Sai-Dudoit feels, “We have a strong history, documented and collective data resourc-es, yet we are weak as a lahui in our knowledge of these things, and cultural pride is more shallow and fleeting and doesn’t seem to be an ever present force that influ-ences our daily routines...”

With so much responsibility at stake, one wonders why the community is not more involved, and Sai-Du-doit believes it is “partly because we have let the tradi-tional family units of space, place and roles decay over time, and we don’t seem to present a collective ‘we’ in anything - this is something that we can and must get behind if the next generation is to have any clue of the footsteps of our kupuna.”

Sai-Dudoit is in awe of the response thus far, but is very anxious because the deadline is fast approaching.

“We are not where we need to be in order to meet the desired goal of completing 60,000 pages by July 31,

Phot

o by

Kau

ʻi Sa

i-Dud

oit

A kupuna reads Ka Hoku o Hawaii, one of the 110 Hawaiian-language newspapers that were published be-tween 1834 and 1948. – Photo: Cour-tesy of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum Library and Archives

17

2012,” adds Sai-Dudoit. July 31 as the deadline is extremely important, as it marks Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea (Restoration Day) in Hawaiʻi.

But Nogelmeier is pleased with the turnout thus far.“I’m awed, actually, that we’ve moved so far in such a short time,” said

Nogelmeier. “The registered user tally to date is remarkable, and although not all volunteers are producing pages yet, the fact that they’re aware of the project and willing to sign up is a great success.”

Having Hawaiian text searchable by google - or any other search engine - opens up a world of knowledge and historical opportunities.

“It would be wonderful to have strong support from the Hawaiian-lan-guage community, as that will be the first population to directly benefit from the resources,” said Nogelmeier.

Jean Bezilla, a senior majoring in Hawaiian Studies and Political Sci-ence, expressed what it means to her to be a part of the ʻIki Kūʻokaʻa project.

“It allows for me to educate myself in Hawaiian newspapers. There is a lot of hidden information that we don’t know about that could be revealed while editing the pages,” Bezilla said.

Hearing about the project from other students at Ka Haka ‘Ula O Keʻelikōlani College of Hawaiian Language, where it was offered as an extra credit opportunity, Bezilla also pointed out that “it’s about knowl-edge and preserving our knowledge and information that was written by

our kūpuna. There is no price for knowledge. I think we are lucky to have the opportunity to read these pages.”

With the option to take action now, it’s obvious that anyone who has any interest in this project or in the future knowledge of generations to come must stop procrastinating and get busy typing.

Coordinators have circulated a plea; To avoid having this project out-sourced to a foreign country where the labor is cheap, a simple donation of 24-hours worth of work could yield up to four pages.

Using your social network like twitter or facebook, like most of us do on a daily basis, can also be an option to spread the word and help recruit volunteers. The project could be completed by next week if you collec-tively recruit 60,000 volunteers typing one page each. Imagine that!

Once the page transcription is complete, the pages still have to be cleaned up and prepared for the upload. Then, a google word search will be available in the Hawaiian language. Imagine being able to plug-in key archaic Hawaiian words and, with the touch of the return button, receive all data on the internet associated with those words.

“We are making every effort to ‘fire all our guns’ in the timeframe we proposed. If we can do it - and it will take all of us - it will be a huge suc-cess for all. If we can’t, we’ll reconnoiter, or stop where we end,” said Nogelmeier.

continued from previous page.

To volunteer, log on to www.awaiaulu.org,

watch the “Plea” video, read the explanation

and watch the “How To” clip.

A full page from KE KUMU HAWAII, dated Dec. 25, 1880, was transcribed by yours truly,

COMPTON, with limited knowledge of the language. It took three hours to type the

entire page.

Aloha kākou,

e Inā ke ho’ā‘o nei ‘oe e unuhi i kēia, a i ‘ole hiki ke unuhi a heluhelu, he kuleana kou no ka ho‘ōla ‘ana i ka ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i. Eia kekahi ala i hiki ai iā ‘oe ke kōkua, ‘o ia ho‘i ma ke kōkua ‘ana iā Puakea Nogelmeier a me Kau‘i Sai-Dudoit me kā lāua pāhana, ‘o ‘Ike Kū‘oko‘a. ‘O ke kikokiko a palapala wale nō kāu kalena e pono ai no kēia hana. Inā hiki iā ‘oe ke kelekiko, hiki iā ‘oke kikokiko a palapala. He pahohope kā lāua e palapala i 60,000 ‘ao‘ao o nā nūpepa ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i ma kekahi kahuapa‘a ma Iulai 31, 2012.

Inā ‘a‘ole ‘oe komo i kēia wā kuikawā e mālama ai i ka ‘ōlelo a nā kūpuna, na kekahi, i hoihoi ‘ole a pili ‘ole i kēia hana, e hana. He 3-6 hola ka lō‘ihi o ka palapala ‘ana i ho‘okahi ‘ao‘ao. Inā e ho‘ōla ‘ia ka ‘ōlelo, no kākou ke kuleana.

-Translated by Ku’ulei Bezilla

photo: akchisuzy989.deviantart.com

16

This plea for revision has been heard by Sakai.“We are undertaking a revision of this [animal] policy,” said Sakai,

“and we are including more definitive language of what ‘away from a building’ means and establishing an actual distance.”

One question still remains: What about the rumors that the cats carry parasites?

“Basically, I think the main concern you’re talking about is toxo-plasmosis,” said Kozuma, “and it’s found in a very small percentage of cats that hunt. So these include domestic cats that have homes. It’s a very small percentage of cats, for a very short period of time. Is it out there? Sure. Is it a risk that we have to blow out of proportion? Absolutely not.”

Kozuma went on to explain that because of the program, the overall health of the feline colonies has increased and the rodent population has declined.

“The rats and mongoose carry leptospirosis (a severe bacterial in-fection) at a much higher incidence,” said Kozuma, “and that’s one that cats, dogs, people, anyone can come down with. And actually the state of Hawai’i has the highest per capita incidence of leptospirosis.”

So how does UH Hilo compare in management when it comes to the Tom & Jerry’s of the world? UH Manoa has a similar program in place to care for cats who roam university grounds.

Though some critics of the program suggest euthanizing the cats, according to the Humane Society, TNR is the most effective option for managing feral cats, though some suggest there are still flaws with the program, due to the nature of the cycle.

Working between well-meaning individuals and the people who find the cats to be a nuisance, UH Hilo follows suit with other univer-sities in its policy and program.

“Given the overall situation, this is the management practice that I see is most helpful,” said Sakai. “Policies should be ‘living’ documents and, as such, are open for modification to meet changing

needs and environments.” So, cat lovers, it would seem that the best way to avoid cat-tastro-

phe is to avoid feeding the kitties.

CATS ON CAMPUS continued from page 13

Photos: Lea Black

SHARK’s continued from page 14

Tom Sharky showing his farm and explaining the operations it takes to transform the raw, organic of his farm into beloved coffee and chocolate! Photo: Lea Black

fers, “If you grow it, I will buy it.” Sharky not only cultivates coffee and chocolate, he cultivates an

‘ohana. Towards the front of his bright, humble fields, a greenhouse pro-

tects keiki coffee and cacao trees lined beside drying screens holding raw cacao beans. Small-scale coffee equipment is here, too, helping to process red coffee cherries to the finished product of a steaming, Hawaiian-grown cup of Joe. Through the processes of shucking, fer-menting, drying, roasting, grinding and finally brewing, coffee gains its varied flavor. Sharky’s products are simple, top quality and offer you an opportunity to support delicious local agriculture direct from the farm.

Photo: Lea Black

Rants

RAVES

EMPLOYMENT !!!! Looking for help in office. Must be able to work the phones, work on

Excel and Word documents, comfort-able with PC computer,must be 18 years and above, email resumes to

patrickmclain12@yahoo.com

Editor’s Note: As much as I realize that the student body wants the

Rants and Raves, we must be responsible about what we want to submit. I have typically just printed every Rant and Rave submission, but that will no longer be

the case. I want to allow you all to have fun, and I real-ize that we are all adults, so allowing for some adult

subject matter is fine, but Rants and Raves that single out individuals or groups for reasons of their race,

ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation and any other trait or lifestyle quality that we deem inappropriate will not

be accepted. If you choose to break these rules, do not expect to see your Rant or Rave in print.

Anthony Holzman-Escareno

Rants

RAVES

&

Good afternoon. There was an email that was sent to you by “Student #1” in regards to the Rants and Raves in Ke Kalahea about Samoans. “Student #1” had forwarded her email that was sent to you and your response to myself and a couple of other UH Hilo Samoan students. And I just wanted to let you know that her views are not representative of the whole. If anything, I wasn’t offended at all by those Rants and Raves. It did not affect me academically. Or spiritually. Rest assured, I did not experience any demonic possessions or bodily spasms because of it. lol. So, please, I implore you to consider not taking away Ke Kalahea’s Rants and Raves because of it. Sincerely, Student #3UH Hilo Samoan Student :D

There was another similar email, but respecting that student’s re-quest, I have kept that email between her and Ke Kalahea.

and

Rants

19

Aloha Ke Kalahea,

I am one of the students at the University of Hawaii Hilo and I am Samoan. I have a major concern about the ‘rants&raves’ section of our school newspaper because it is affecting most students, especially Samoans. If racism is included in the ‘rants&raves’ section of the school newspaper then the racist comments about Samoans would be consid-ered. How low can this be? Would you want the Samoans to mention your race in the newspaper just to counterattack? Did you guys even think about what will happen in the future and how this will affect the students’ education? How can this university be the best choice for these students and not supporting them culturally?

Please take a look at the repeated names of students on the newspaper. They were affected and humiliated by those comments.

I ask that you take into consideration the borderline of these rants and raves because it not only affected a group of people, it affected souls.

Thanks.Student #1 (Names have been substituted)

Ke Kalahea response:

You are absolutely right. I, on behalf of Ke Kalahea, apologize for the rants and raves. They are written by students, and they do not express the feelings or opinions of Ke Kalahea. This will not hap-pen again, as I highly doubt there will be a rants and raves section again. Obviously, students were not responsible about their entries, and the punishment for that seems like it will be the inability to submit any rant or rave. As for me, I am Mexican just in case you wanted to “counterattack.” though I had nothing to do with the submission. I am the boss of the school paper, so by all means, do what you must. I do not understand how the rants and raves section affected someone’s education or soul, but I totally agree with you that the submission should have never been printed. Once again, I apologize for it being printed.

Anthony Holzman-EscarenoEditor in ChiefKe Kalahea

To the Ke Kalahea Staff: (Email 1)

I understand that you all “express the voice of the student body,” yet each of you are also providing a platform for racial discrimina-tion. In your most recent issue, in one particular area of operation, the Rants&Raves, you all allowed members of the student body to racial slur minorities, particularly Samoans. Do any of you honestly think a “fiscally responsible organization” would allow that type of thing? I fully understand you each have the freedom of speech and press, yet you all fail to comprehend that your rights come at a moral limit. The only thing you are encouraging with your freedom of speech and press is racial discrimination. Where is the equality in that?

I am a proud Samoan/Hawaiian/English student here at the university. Born and raised on Oahu, I graduated with a 3.0 from one of the nation’s most renowned schools, `Iolani School. I am 5’9’’ and under 300lbs. However, I apologize if I do not fit the racial profiling of that rant that appeared in your issue. In your January issue, one rant read, “You lack journalistic integrity,” and you all prove them right. I understand that the racial slurring rant does not “express the views and feelings of Ke Kalahea,” yet it is a reflection of the lack of integrity your staff upholds.

Stop “broadening” the wrong perspective.

Sincerely,Student #2

To the Ke Kalahea Staff: (Email 2)

I write this second email in opposition to your newspaper. Recall the rant in the January issue of how “you lack journalistic integ-rity.” I agree entirely now not only because of the upsetting rants towards Samoans, but also due to the belittling and worthless swimsuit issue you all had published then last Fall. It is demean-ing to the female population of the student body, and the issue was a complete waste of space. Granted you all provided decent coverage on the beach spots island-wide, yet you all also gave men more reasons why women are simply sexual objects and women more reasons to “change” their body image. Lastly, there was no point for even doing the swimsuit issue! Look at Manoa, at least their dance squad raises money for their team by selling swimsuit calendars similar to that issue. For the Ke Kalahea, your swimsuit issue was simply a showcase for those women, which reflects the lack of self-esteem they hold for themselves.

Sincerely,Student #2

Ke Kalahea response:

Dear Srudent #2,First of all, I would like to apologize for the fact that the rants and raves were printed. That section of the newspaper is there to give students a chance

to express their individual voices. Rants and raves are student written, and as you were kind enough to point out, “they in no way express the views and feelings of Ke Kalahea.” I assure you that we are recognizing our mistake, and at the moment, we are contemplating removing the section from our paper, since it is obvious that it has not been used in a responsible manner by the students or, this time, by us.

Your accusation that we are not a “fiscally responsible organization” because we “allowed this type of thing” baffles me. Did you mean fiscally or morally? Fiscal responsibility entails being responsible with the money we are given. I welcome you to come look at our books. You will see that every purchase we have made has been for the newspaper.

The freedom of speech and press does come at a moral limit. I feel that this limit was passed in this one instance, which is why I apologize for the rants and raves that were printed, but to say that the only thing we are encouraging is racial discrimination is ludicrous. One rant and rave does not encompass what we encourage. This is the one section of the paper that is not written by us, yet you accuse us of only “encouraging…racial discrimination.”

Congratulations on your academic endeavors. It’s great to hear that you have a 3.0, but to sarcastically apologize to the newspaper for not fitting into a racial profile that was not compiled by us is inappropriate. Ke Kalahea has never requested or encouraged any student to abide by, stay in, or step out of any profile. Those choices are up to the individual.

If your only comment is aimed at the rants and raves, you are in an inadequate position to accuse us of lacking journalistic integrity. Maybe there are students in the body who lack this integrity (i.e. whoever actually wrote these rants and raves), but to say that we lack “journalistic integrity,” because of the rants and raves, is a faulty assumption. By focusing on one page, it seems that you are ignoring the other 19 pages and chalking them up as lacking “journalistic integrity.”

As for the swimsuit issue, you can refer to the “Letter From the Editor” in issue eight from last semester for my statement on that. I will attach that letter in a later email if you’d like. I have a question: Are you holding Ke Kalahea personally responsible for our patriarchal society? I feel that we did noth-ing overtly offensive or demeaning. Also, anyone who creates a competition with themselves and anyone in that issue is doing themselves a disservice. That competition rests within their own being, and anyone who felt forced to “change” felt so on their own accord. I have another question as well: So, because the dance team sells the calendars of “objectified” women, they have more integrity than Ke Kalahea? I feel like that implies that it’s acceptable to objectify woman as long as you are making money off of it, which, in case you didn’t know, we did not.

Also, to say that anything is a complete waste of space is an opinion, just to let you know.Once again, I would like to apologize for any inconvenience, pain and/or suffering the rants and raves have caused you. Anyone who feels offended

has every right to be, but this mistake has obviously led you to rush to other judgments about Ke Kalahea. Rhetoric.P.S. There will either no longer be rants and raves, or they will be extremely filtered.Thank you for your response.Anthony Holzman-EscarenoEditor In ChiefKe Kalahea

and

Ke Kalahea is accepting applications from

current UH Hilo and Hawai‘i Community College students.

If you are interested in joining the student

publication, please go to Campus Center 210 or 215. All

completed applications should be turned in to

Campus Center 210. We are hiring for the following

positions: News Writer and Advertising Manager.

Contact UsOffice: Campus Center Room 215Phone: 974-7504

Email: Kalahea@hawaii.edu or abronson@hawaii.edu

Community Calendar:Wed Feb 29: Pianist Soyeon Lee @ UH Hilo Theater, 7:30 p.m.First prize winner of the prestigious 2010 Namburg International Piano CompetitionTickets at the box office, $7 for students

Wed Feb 29: Splinters @ Hilo Palace TheaterWinner of Best Documentary, Surf Magazine 2011Tickets $5 at Palace Theater Box Office

Fri Mar 2: Na Ali’i of ComedyAn evening with Hawai’i’s legends of comedyAdvance tickets $22.50 at Palace Theater Box Office

Sun Mar 4: 8th Annual Girls Day Diva Fest @ UH Hilo Theater, 2 p.m.Local vendors and entertainers gather to celebrate Girls DayTickets: $40, to benefit UH Hilo Performing arts Center and Scholarship fund

Wed Mar 7: Journey Through the Universe: Sci Night, 6 p.m. Family science night featuring Dr. Derrick Pitts, Senior Scientist and Chief Astronomer at the Franklin Institute, PhiladelphiaScience and Technology Building (STB) 108

Sun Mar 11: The Ocean Regards Us All As OneA collaboration of art, music, and danceTickets $25 at Palace Theater Box Office

To submit events to the community calendar, email lgleason@hawaii.edu by March 2